


Tracing Hearts

by giantessmess



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tumblr Prompt, Who says I can't write excessively romantic things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 04:19:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8475070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giantessmess/pseuds/giantessmess
Summary: Everyone on Earth, every single human, has a soulmate that can be identified by some kind of sign, be it heart-shaped cut or otherwise. As a Kryptonian, Kara assumes she is destined to be alone.Yes, this is another Soulmate AU-with-Identifying-Marks fic. I like those. Tumblr asked.





	

Earth had so many strange rituals and traditions. Some of them were baffling but kind of sweet, like the way her foster family bought a dead tree once a year, dragged it into their living space and anointed it with plastic trinkets.

The way they found their mates was more confusing, more terrifying. It didn’t make sense to Kara. Alex had explained it to her first. Talked about cuts and bruises as if they could be a map. Eliza had taken over when it had ended in an inevitable yelling match.

“She’s not trying to trick you.”

“Yes she is! She’s doing that thing, like with the flying fat man in the red suit. She think’s I’ll believe anything.”

Eliza smiled.

“This one isn’t a folk tale, Kara,” she took Kara’s hand, and led her to the kitchen table. It was only then that Kara paid attention to the scar on her foster mother’s arm. It was faint, but it looked like a heart.

“I got it when we were making dinner, one night. I’d known him a year.”

Kara frowned, but reached out to touch it, feeling the foreign way the scar made a ridge on Eliza’s skin.

“You cut yourself on purpose?”

“No, Kara,” she sighed. “It is just one of the signs.”

“I can’t get cuts.”

“I know.”

Kara didn’t want to offend her, but she had to make it clear that she was suspicious.

“We don’t have soulmates on Krypton.”

Eliza brushed the hair out of Kara’s eyes.

“Everyone has a soulmate, even you. And when you find them, they’ll make themselves known.”

Kara hugged her arms around herself, not sure if she liked this. Mates were chosen on Krypton, the choice bestowed upon couples like a treasure. It was calibrated with the hope that they’d be able to have children. That the awful blight which had sunk their birthrate could be cured by good planning. Kara had been the last girl born, her cousin the last boy. They were seen as curiosities, almost, because of the slim likelihood of conception. It seemed terrifying, to leave all of that to fate.

 

She didn’t give it much thought, or tried not to, over the years. For one thing, it seemed cruel. She never quite believed her foster mother’s assertion that she was included in this, because she wasn’t like them. Not really. It hurt all the more when she realised how powerful the connections were. The way humans found each other through some form of magic bestowed on them from their old Gods. They took it for granted that this astounding thing was normal, but Kara would never do that. She went about her life, bestowed with gifts from her own Gods, but she’d trade them gladly. Trade the blessing of Rao’s light, and the way her cells drank the power of the Earth’s sun. She’d trade flying. But it wouldn’t do to question one’s gifts. They were what they were.

Instead, she worked to protect these wonderful creatures. If she couldn’t be one of them, she’d make sure they stayed safe. Supergirl would be something else they could rely on, take for granted if they wished. She could give them something, even if she’d never get back that one thing they all seemed to find so easily.

She had worked for Miss Grant, for Cat, for over a year. It baffled her how nervous she still got, how much she seemed to lose her confidence around her boss. Even when Cat was being kind. Especially if she was being kind. On this particular day, Kara was feeling more exhausted than she was used to. It hadn't been a great night; she'd been up until dawn fighting a large, extra sharp alien. She'd barely dragged herself back to her apartment afterwards. She’d almost fallen out of the sky. But she was a professional. She made it to work, regardless. Maybe a little worse for wear, because Cat looked her over a few more times than usual.

“You look sick,” Cat said, frowning. “You never get sick.”

“No, I’m fine. Just…”

Cat waved her explanation away impatiently and went to sit on the couch in her office, expecting Kara to follow. She took Cat’s directions, making notes on her iPad, and watched as Cat sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Kara stood quickly, fumbling for the pitcher of water.

“Here,” she handed her boss an aspirin. Cat took it gratefully. But when Kara had the glass in her possession again, it slipped, smashing against the floor.

“Oh,” she said, hurrying to tidy it up with her hands. Cat made a dismissive motion.

"No, stop that. You’ll cut yourself.”

Kara was about to contradict her, when she felt the sting of something foreign. She looked down at her hand and didn't quite know how to process it. Blood. Actual blood. The last time she’d seen her own blood was her childhood on Krypton. She gaped at it.

“I’m…bleeding.”

"What did I just say?" Cat sighed, moving to get some first aid from her desk. But Kara was frozen on the spot, wondering how this was even possible. She glanced up at Cat when she came back with some gauze, some cotton balls. Band-aids. She bit her lip, wanted to cry. She couldn't bare to look at her own hand, feeling weak and strange. Cat tended to the wound with care, but she stalled after a moment. Flinched, dropping everything on the ground and backing away with a strange look in her eye.

“Miss Grant?”

Cat was shaking her head, open-mouthed.

“No…” she stared back at Kara like she couldn’t quite believe she existed. Kara didn’t know what to say, what to think. In any case, Cat seemed to quell whatever it was that shocked her. But her hands were shaking when she took Kara’s in her own again. Cat even started to say something a few times, but when Kara looked at her expectantly Cat couldn’t seem to find the words. She placed a large bandage over Kara’s hand. Swallowing once, she nodded and stood, leaving Kara to stare at the gauze over her skin in wonder.

She had been sick, or at least got sick shortly afterwards. Alex had helped take care of her as they tried to figure out why Kara had blown her powers, and how to coax them back. It was hard to leave National City without Supergirl. To leave it to the mercy of fate again. Alex grumbled that she’d never seen a worse sick person, it was only a cold. She’d be fine. They’d figure it out (she did however make sure Kara had an endless supply of potstickers). Kara didn’t mention the moment with Cat to her sister. She didn’t draw attention to the cut on her hand, which still stung something terrible. And once her powers did return, she removed the gauze. It didn’t even scar.

Cat behaved more kindly towards her after that incident. She seemed wary, though. It made Kara wonder if Cat knew. If she suspected the truth about her. But Cat never said anything. And though she was kinder, she was skittish, handing Kara paperwork quickly like she dreaded any chance of their fingers brushing. Kara began to wonder if Cat was as nervous around her as she was around Cat. But that seemed ridiculous. Cat was…Cat. She was the most powerful human Kara had ever met, and she wore that power like an extra layer of skin, like her eyes were imbued with something that could burn. It was astonishing. Kara half suspected the sun shone a little more brightly on Cat, the same way it did on her.

The sun actually felt dimmer after Cat took her leave of absence. Which Kara knew was silly. It didn’t make it less true. She hated Cat’s office now, because it didn’t contain that same feeling of light, that same familiar terror mixed with joy. Until one afternoon, James called her in.

“Hey,” he said. He was looking at her too closely. She smiled uncertainly.

“What’s up?”

He handed her a folder. Gesturing to her to sit on Cat’s couch. He didn’t move to do the same.

“It was buried in last year’s quarterly reports.”

“What?’ she asked. “James. What is this?”

He smiled.

“I’ll leave you alone with it.”

Frowning now at the oddness, the mystery, she flipped the folder open. inside was a series of sketches, scrawled notes. She didn’t know what she was seeing right away, until she noticed the shapes, the patterns. The drawings of a rough-cut heart and Cat’s baffled commentary alongside it. And her name, just her name, with question mark beside it.

Oh Rao. Oh.

She was dizzy. She didn’t know if she was still sitting, she couldn’t feel the hand holding the paper, didn’t know if she’d be able to stand. Her heart was pounding. When she did move, she did it a little too quickly to pass for human. Rushed out of the office past James, who just smiled quietly. She made it to the roof, changed in a blur and flew in the only direction she knew how to find by simply listening. She would find Cat by her heartbeat. Wherever she was.

Wherever she was turned out to be San Francisco, in a rented penthouse. The air smelt foreign. The sun was slightly more temperate, but it lit up Cat’s face with the same kind of luminosity. She was standing on her balcony, a drink in hand, as if she’d been waiting. Only the look on Cat’s face spoke of her surprise.

“Supergirl,” she said, all confidence when Kara landed beside her. “I don’t believe I gave you my new postal address. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

It was so much, being in Cat’s presence now. So much, now that Kara knew. Now that she could see the way Cat’s hand trembled slightly, the way she looked away as if afraid to make eye contact. Kara took the piece of folded paper out, presenting it to Cat slowly, carefully. Cat widened her eyes, almost dropping the glass. When Kara took it from her their fingers brushed. Cat closed her eyes with a sigh.

“How did…”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Cat opened her eyes and stared at her, then, in wonder.

“I…’ she blushed. Kara moved forward, brushing her hand along Cat’s cheek, cupping it. “I don’t know,” Cat finally breathed. She blinked, took hold of Kara’s hand, her finger tracing the flawlessness of Kara’s skin, lips parted a little as if trying not to gasp. Kara's legs felt weak.

“I don’t scar,” Kara offered, her voice barely making it out.

“No,” Cat said. “But I do.”

She opened the palm of her hand, showing Kara the small, white lines that made up a heart. It was in the same spot. Right where Kara's had been.

“Oh,” Kara breathed.

Cat looked terrified, but she didn’t move away when Kara kissed the palm of her hand. She let out a small laugh as Kara kissed her fingers, her wrist. Gripped Kara’s hand fiercely and yanked her forward. But their lips met tentatively, carefully. Both of them breathing, sure they were breathing through each other. Kara was the first to break away, but only to meet Cat’s eyes.

“You’re coming back.”

Cat nodded, breathlessly replying.

“I’m coming back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompt: "What do you think about a small piece of supercat soulmate au with a happy ending? Between two soulmates, the older one would be the first to know their connection. Be it a heart-shaped papercut, or dizziness upon seeing the other. The signs various but the message clear. The younger one, if not informed by the older, would only find out on the 1000th day since their encounter. A few months after Cat's leave, Kara had a heart attack while going through Cat's stuff."  
> Apologies for writing this in passive voice, I wrote it fairly quickly and had a lot to cover.


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